Related Music question-dark

Versions - Different performances of the song by the same artist

Compilations - Other albums which feature this performance of the song

Covers - Performances of a song with the same name by different artists

Song Title	Versions	Compilations	Covers
Box Of Rain
Bird Song
The Race Is On
Looks Like Rain
China Cat Sunflower->
I Know You Rider
Big River

Notes

In honor of the upcoming 34th anniversary of one of my favorite Dead shows, here is an odd but worthy little item. This tape came to me in about 1983. The source was a cassette of the (partial) first set of this colossal Dead show, made from the monitor mixing board, as opposed to the main soundboard -- or so the story goes. Unfortunately, most of the songs were severely cut and incomplete. This version includes all of the complete songs from this particular source, plus "China Cat" (which does have a nasty cut, but at the time, the only circulating source was the famous Donn Amick audience recording, which lacked the "China Cat," so this was a big bonus when it came along). It's a bit of a hodge-podge of tunes, but still worthwhile in my opinion.

Some years later, the superb Betty Board version of this show appeared, which is a beautiful soundboard recording, and a wonderful complement to the very nice audience tape which had circulated for many years. It was greeted ecstatically, especially in these parts. It did have a couple of minor flaws, however. The good news is that this version cures some of those problems!

First, some general comments:

The sound on this one clearly is not as clean as the Betty Board. There are a couple of analog generations, and if you listen closely during the quiet passages, you can hear some hiss. Otherwise, it has a nice full sound. The stereo image sounds slightly different to me compared to the Betty Board, but I could be wrong. Track fades were on my source tape.

The Betty Board, for all its clarity and length, has a couple of problems. First, there is some periodic static or distortion in the left channel throughout the first set. All the tracks that comprise this seed are static-free! If you've ever wanted to hear this sublime Bird Song without the static, this one's for you! I've included samples from the Betty Board and this version for comparison purposes.

Other neat features:

The Race Is On appears in its entirety (the first 20 seconds or so are missing on the Betty Board, which was skillfully patched with the audience recording on the most recent seed of the BB soundboard).

Likewise, there's a gap in the Betty Board recording during "I Know You Rider," which was nicely patched with the aud. on the composite seed. This version is uncut.

And on the downside, there's a little bit missing from the beginning of "Looks Like Rain."

Hope y'all enjoy it! Check out the samples. And by the way, if anyone out there has a lower-gen version, bring it on!